Vices and Venom (Twilight Fan Fiction)

Chapter Eight: Volturi

We began the steep climb, and the road grew congested. As we wound higher, the cars became too close together for Alice to weave insanely between them anymore. We slowed to a crawl behind a little tan Peugeot.

"Alice," I moaned. The clock on the dash seemed to be speeding up.

"It's the only way in," she tried to reassure me. But her voice was too strained to comfort. The cars continued to edge forward, one car length at a time. The sun beamed down brilliantly, seeming already overhead. The cars crept one by one toward the city.

As we got closer, I could see cars parked by the side of the road with people getting out to walk the rest of the way. At first, I thought it was just impatience-something I could easily understand. But then we came around a switchback, and I could see the filled parking lot outside the city wall, the crowds of people walking through the gates. No one was being allowed to drive through.

"Alice," I whispered urgently. "I know," she said. Her face was chiseled from ice. Now that I was out of my head, I could tell that it was very windy. The people crowding toward the gate gripped their hats and tugged their hair out of their faces. Their clothes billowed around them. I also noticed that the color red was everywhere. Redshirts, red hats, red flags dripping like long ribbons beside the gate, whipping in the wind-as I watched, the brilliant crimson scarf one woman had tied around her hair was caught in a sudden gust. It twisted up into the air above her, writhing like it was alive. She reached for it, jumping in the air, but it continued to flutter higher, a patch of bloody color against the dull, ancient walls.

"Alice, I have to go," Alice spoke quickly in a fierce, low voice. "Can you make it from here?"

I nodded, knowing that I could make it, I just needed to know where I was going. "Don't get lost." These were the last words Alice shouted at me before emptiness filled my former seat.

"Palazzo dei Priori, Palazzo dei Priori," I repeated the name I overheard a mortal muttering, trying to focus on anything other than the panic coursing through my body. What if I didn't make it?

Edward will be under the clock tower, to the north of the square. There's a narrow alleyway on the right, and he'll be in the shadow there. You have to get his attention before he can move into the sun. Her instructions played in my mind.

Two minutes, Halston. You have two minutes to get to him.

I took a deep breath, centering myself and focusing all my attention on what I had seen of the clocktower in the photos. I imagined the alleyway Edward would be in, and how I desperately needed to be there... Now. The clock tolled, and I was darkness. The wind was enough to make me uncomfortable when it hit my face now that the crowd was gone. Then I saw him.

Edward stood, motionless as a statue, just a few feet from the mouth of the alley. His eyes were closed, the rings underneath them deep purple, his arms relaxed at his sides, his palms turned forward. His expression was very peaceful like he was dreaming pleasant things. The marble skin of his chest was bare-there was a small pile of white fabric at his feet. The light reflecting from the pavement of the square gleamed dimly from his skin. I'd never seen anything more beautiful. I barreled into him, knocking us both to the ground with the impact.

"No!" I screamed, still processing that I had got to him seconds before he walked into the daylight. "Edward, look at me!" I screamed because his eyes were still closed. I wanted to shake him to attention but shouted instead when I realized he wasn't listening.

"Edward!" His arms wrapped around me as if on instinct. We were still on the shadowed pavement when his dark eyes opened slowly as the clock tolled again. He looked up at me with quiet surprise. "Amazing," he said, his voice full of wonder, slightly amused. "Carlisle was right."